Saturday, March 04, 2017

Tai Chi Chuan Standard Short 24 Form

"At this period of wushu, the Nanking
Central Kuoshu Institute in 1956 tasked the choreography of a Taijiquan routine
what would be more suitable for popular dissemination among the masses, in
keeping with the government's egalitarian agenda. The traditional forms
were just too long and time consuming to practice, and the traditional methods
too arcane and demanding for mass propagation. The challenge was to reduce
the one hundred-odd movements of the traditional Yang Style Taijiquan, prevalent
then, to its core, by removing the many repetitive movements as well as the less
essential ones. Thus, the 24-Form Taijiquan set was created.
Instrumental in this simplification effort was Li Tianji (1913-1996) who had
been appointed a wushu research fellow at the Institute. Under official
auspices, the 24-Form Taijiquan quickly became the standard form, taught
throughout China as part of physical education curriculum in schools and
colleges. It is perhaps the best know Taijiquan form in the world today.
As widespread as it is, the 24-Form is at best an abridged version of the
traditional Yang form, a synopsis of the art."
- C. P. Ong,
Taijiquan: Cultivating Inner Strength,
2013, p. 7. I practice this Taijiquan form twice every day. It takes from 5 to 7 minutes to perform.You
can do this indoors by adjusting to the space available, or outdoors.
When done slowly and gently you don't need to do any warmup exercises
unless your knees are problematic. A lovely Taijiquan form! Good for
persons of all ages. This form is a cornerstone of my personal T'ai Chi
Ch'uan practices.

The first Taijiquan form I learned in 1986 was the Standard 24
Movement T'ai Chi Ch'uan Form in the Yang Style of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.
At that time there were no books or instructional videotapes on this
popular form. Since that time, nearly 25 years have past. Now there
are dozens of books and instructional DVDs and webpages on the subject
of the 24 Form.

Standard Simplified Taijiquan 24 Form.
Research by Michael P. Garofalo, M.S. This webpage includes a
detailed bibliography of books, media, links, online videos, articles,
and resources. It provides a list of the 24 movement names in
English, Chinese, French, German and Spanish, with citations for
sources of the movement names. It provides detailed descriptions of
each movement with black and white line illustrations and
photographs. It includes relevant quotations, notes, performance
times, section breakdowns, basic Tai Chi principles, and strategies
for learning the form. The Peking (Bejing) Chinese National orthodox
standard simplified 24 movement T'ai Chi Ch'uan form, created in 1956,
is the most popular form practiced all around the world. This form
uses the Yang Style of Taijiquan. Published by Green Way Research, Valley Spirit Taijiquan, Red Bluff, California: Webpage URL: http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/short.htm.

This
webpage provides many good suggestions for a person learning this form
on their own if there is no Tai Chi class in their area.

The best book that I have seen on the subject is:

The Yang Taiji 24 Step Short Form: A Step by Step Guide for All Levels
By James Drewe
London, Singing Dragon Press, 2011.
382 pages, black and white photographs, charts, detailed descriptions, training tips.
I give information on many other fine books by other good authors on the 24 Form in my webpage: Cheng Zhao, Foen Tjoeng Lie, Eric Chaline, Le Deyin, etc..
My students tell me that their favorite instructional DVD on the 24 Form is:

2 comments:

The 24 form is really a very popular Taijiquan form! Last year I ran a little Tai Chi survey - almost 500 people from all other the world participated and 13% said their most practiced form is the 24 form!http://qialance.com/survey-tai-chi-style/